Paris-based Aqemia picks up €30 million capital injection to uncover breakthrough drug discoveries at scale
Summary
Taking a fresh approach to discovery, driven by the desire to design fast innovative drug candidates for dozens of critical diseases, is French startup Aqemia. Maximilien Levesque, Co-founder and CEO of Aqemia: “We are thrilled to welcome Eurazeo and Bpifrance’s Large Venture fund onboard, as they are known for investing in the finest French scale-ups, and to receive again backing from Elaia, the first French Deeptech VC investor” Founded in 2019, the startup has already grown swiftly, going from a spin-off of Ecole Normale Superieure to an A-team of 50 people at the crossroads of Chemistry and Artificial Intelligence, and has built its innovation engine – Aqemia’s Launchpad. Laurent Higueret, Senior Investment Director at Bpifrance’s Large Venture fund: “Early drug discovery is a long, costly and cumbersome process with often unsatisfactory outcomes for sponsors and ultimately patients. Through this investment, we are thrilled to be part of this exciting journey and further expand Bpifrance portfolio in deeptech and AI.” Based in Paris, Aqemia is on a mission to massively scale drug discovery, through a first-in-class technological platform combining quantum-inspired physics and machine learning. Those candidates will fuel a diversified therapeutic pipeline across a variety of targets and indications that Aqemia intends to advance into clinical trials alone through a constellation of Biotech spin-offs or with partners as the case may be.